Instant messaging has become a mainstay of Internet communications.
As used in this application, instant messaging includes the ability for one user to immediately become aware of the presence of another user on the network. Thus the mere event of user A signing onto the Internet gives rise to an indication to user B that the user A is present on the network. Once user B is aware of user A's presence on the network, user B can send instant messages to user A with a high level of confidence that the messages are being received in near real-time.
America Online Instant Messenger™ (AIM) and ICQ® are two examples of instant messaging services that allow users on a network to identify the on-line presence of other users who have been associated in a database, commonly referred to as a buddy list. In this fashion, users can know when individuals on their buddy list are on line and hence facilitate instant communications. As of 2000, AOL's statistics on its instant messaging users indicate that these users are producing approximately 476,000,000 messages a day online. ICQ members produce nearly 350,000,000. At any one time there are 1 million people using these systems. AIM and ICQ are just two of the available messaging systems. Instant messaging is offered through virtually every web portal including Yahoo, Netscape, and MSN.
Two technical innovations are generally responsible for the current popularity of instant messaging on fixed IP networks. In 1996, a method was designed to fix addresses to users, allowing people to build a buddy list, similar to an e-mail address book, of friends and colleagues to communicate with via instant messaging. The second major innovation is the free distribution of these applications. This began in 1997 when AOL made its Instant Messenger, which had been available to their paying customers for years, freely available for anyone on the Internet to download and begin using. From this simple beginning just a few years ago, instant messaging has currently become ubiquitous on fixed IP networks with IM clients existing for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix.
However, even though instant messaging is commonly used on fixed networks, it is not generally available for wireless devices. What is needed is a method and apparatus for sharing user event information, such as presence on a network, among mobile devices and those connected to fixed IP networks such as the Internet. This would allow general availability of instant messaging between personal computers on fixed networks with wireless devices on wireless networks. In this fashion communication among individuals who are both on a fixed IP network such as the Internet and those on a cellular/PCS network can be facilitated.